An Australian boy's fight against Neuroblastoma, a lethal childhood cancer

Sunday, December 12, 2004

Dylan visit's school to say goodbye

We head off to hospital tomorrow, we just hope there is a bed on 6 East so that we don’t miss out on the rumored visit from Kylie Minogue this week. Dylan was all prepared to go to school on Friday but when it was time to leave at 11am he burst into tears. He wouldn’t tell me why but I think the whole situation just over whelmed him. But by 2pm he asked if we could go to school, and when we arrived he was very happy. One child asked him about his hickman line that was peaking out the bottom of his t-shirt. Dylan did not respond, although when he sat with a small group of his friends playing with Lego, he started to tell them about it. They asked him what saw at hospital, and Dylan told them that he could see a church (from the window). The rest of the afternoon he played with the children and it was as though nothing had happened, they all treated him just as the old Dylan they once knew. Miss White gave me Dylan’s books from the two terms that he attended earlier this year. It was sad to see them all only quarter done. In his diary he wrote about the day he saw the fairy penguins when we went there in January this year with Jenni and Kailah. Then there were a lot of “we went to McDonald’s” entries (how embarrassing!) and the last one made me cry. It was about his swimming lessons and he drew a picture of the pool. Just before he was diagnosed, Dylan was just starting to really enjoy swimming classes, but I recall him missing the last 2 lessons due to pain…then it all started with the hospital visits etc and finally we found out he had cancer.Saturday night we drove around the streets looking at all the Xmas lights on the houses, Dylan had his head out the window enjoying the wind on his face. Today we caught up with friends that we met in hospital when Dylan was first admitted to the Royal Children’s, when we were in the general medical ward, prior to a confirmed diagnosis. They had a little baby in hospital at the time and they experienced watching us fret over waiting for a diagnosis and then saw us after we got the news. They provided us with great support until we were transferred to the cancer ward, and as a result we have kept in touch and have made great friends. During this journey we have met wonderful people and many will remain our friends for life, and I know we will continue to meet more along the way. I know this week will be hard, lots of throwing up, nausea and sleepless nights but hopefully it will be all worth it with a success in clearing his bone marrow.

I will have limited access to the Internet during our time in hospital this week, so I may not enter another journal on Dylan’s website until the middle of the week.